The 60’s divide between the generations had an anti-authoritarian aspect that was very personal. Parents felt under attack and probably were. That aspect of the generation gap seems not in evidence today, but there certainly are ways in which the generations are very divided.

The first, most obvious, and perhaps most important way is in the technological divide. Even people born only a few years apart can be separated by how they use social media. Twitter was only launched in 2006 and already it is a game-changer in international affairs, but your use of it can depend very much on your age. My son and his fiancee who are only six years apart in age ascribe their differing cell phone use to this gap. New internet media sites and cell phone apps are appearing every day and are changing the way we interact with one another and the world, so the gap in our technological mindsets is likely only to increase.

A Sunday NY Times article by David Leonhardt (June 24, 2012) talks about all the ways in which the generation gap has increased since the 60s. Politically, the generations began to separate in 2004, with older voters moving to the right and younger ones to the left, according to Leonhardt, so that now the two groups differ on a range of hot button issues: immigration reform, same-sex marriage, social security and military cuts, religion. The economic downturn has affected young people more deleteriously, stalling their career progress and daunting their prospects, so that the income and home ownership gap between young and old has widened. “If there is a theme unifying these economic and political trends, in fact, it is that the young are generally losing out to the old,” writes Leonhardt. Making matters worse, government spending is down on education and up on Medicare, which “is a transfer program from youth to age.”

Why these shifts should be taking place is something of a mystery. Leondardt suggests that growing up with greater diversity may have encouraged a more liberal point of view in the young or that coming of political age during the unpopular presidency of George W. Bush may have pushed young people to the left. What ever the explanation, it is really quite amazing that there isn’t greater personal enmity between the generations, given that older people are taking a greater share of a limited pie. It may be that young people have yet to figure this out or that they got alone well enough with their parents to come to the growing divide with more acceptance then resentment.

topics: culture, family